Personally I prefer stained molding.  I absolutely love the grains in natural wood.  But after seeing these pictures I too am wondering why those that do have painted molding aren't going with black?  It's awesome!  Much richer looking than the shades of white that are so popular now.  Maybe you two will be the start of a trend! 

Becky <>< 

Wow is right! Thanks for posting these pictures! I think it looks great, which is even more reason to be confused about why people are so anti- when it comes to black molding. Seeing that you had success with it though, I think I'm going to give it a shot.

wow!  i find it really serendipitous that you posted this the very day that i finished putting up black crown molding in my bedroom. when i explained the plan to some people, they made faces, like -- as you wondered -- molding shouldn't be black or something.  i had some concern myself that it would look somehow "gothy," but i think it turned out okay.  only thing i would have done differently is to use wider crown -- this stuff was 3" and it looks a little puny from afar.

in case you wonder, the ceiling is not painted that taupe color, but covered with fabric that is gathered around the ceiling fan in the middle.  i only got the idea for crown molding because i had to cover the spot where the fabric was attached (rather inelegantly) to the ceiling/wall.